Raptors keep the status quo without sacrificing future
Masai Ujiri's solution for the Toronto Raptors was to maintain the status quo.
Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka were given massive market-value raises to remain in Toronto on three-year contracts to match the three seasons left of team control on DeMar DeRozan's deal. All three players are firmly within their prime.
This is their window to contend. The core three will return for a Raptors team destined for a fifth straight playoff run. Ujiri has more work ahead to construct a cost-effective supporting cast, but the motive was clear.
Toronto wasn't ready to blow it up and move on.
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For all the huffing and puffing over changing the culture, suddenly shifting into a tank was never a realistic option for the Raptors.
The 2017 playoffs were a disappointment, but good teams don't just raze everything to the ground. Letting their quality players leave for nothing would be poor asset management, their existing prospects aren't ready for bigger roles, and their draft pick was in the mid-twenties.
Tanking from that position would have spanned at least four-to-five seasons, especially with franchises like Brooklyn, Sacramento, Indiana, and Phoenix being as hopeless as they are. Dropping below them was borderline impossible, yet necessary in order to bend the lottery odds in their favor.
It made more sense to keep the band together while continuing to tweak around the margins. It's not the sexiest option, but making the playoffs for a historically inept franchise like the Raptors is not nothing. The greatest accomplishment wasn't producing banners, it was elevating Toronto to legitimacy.
Free agents used to flee Toronto in droves - now the Raptors have retained DeRozan, Ibaka, and Lowry in consecutive years. None of them even took meetings with any other suitor. That's progress.
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Toronto's challenge was to maintain continuity while preserving flexibility.
Returning Lowry and Ibaka was a must, but it wasn't prudent to award either player a lengthy contract. Anchoring themselves to the anvil of paying $40 million to a 36-year-old guard or $25 million to a ground-bound 30-year-old Ibaka wasn't good management, either.
Ujiri ducked this problem by front-loading their contracts. Lowry and Ibaka will be paid $55 million per year - an expensive-yet-worthy sum - but they will only be compensated for what's left of their prime. Even if they age faster than expected, their contracts will still hold value as expiring deals in 2020.
All of their options are still open. After three years, the Raptors can reload for their core or walk away and launch a true rebuild. Either way, the cap sheet will be clean, they own all of their picks moving forward, and already hold eight players on rookie-scale contracts.
Ujiri kept the core together without sacrificing the future. It's the best of both worlds.
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
But the Raptors are still flawed, and their ceiling remains the same as before.
Their imperfections come to the surface each year in the playoffs. Lowry and DeRozan no longer perform like All-Stars, the supporting cast is unreliable, and Dwane Casey's coaching is inflexible. No matter the opponent, each playoff series is a slog for the Raptors. It's been this way for four years and it will continue with the same core pieces in place.
This is a roster supposedly meant to compete with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but noble intentions fall well short of threatening the beer-sipping, ball-twirling King. LeBron James has banished the Raptors from the postseason in two straight years, with all eight playoff wins being blowouts. The same fate awaits Toronto in the 2018 playoffs.
The Raptors need an upgrade to pull level with Cleveland, but their hands are tied by this expensive roster. They need a big wing-defender to guard James, and one that can preferably stretch the floor as the second or third option on offense. At the very least, the Raptors need to add some 3-point shooters to open up the floor.
But the money is incredibly tight and they'll likely have to settle for re-signing Patrick Patterson, who doesn't fully address any of their needs. Otherwise, they have the mid-level exception to use on a veteran bench piece. That's not moving the needle whatsoever.
If anything, the Raptors will look to dump money. Parting with two of Cory Joseph, DeMarre Carroll, or Jonas Valanciunas is the only viable way to duck below the luxury tax. Younger reserves in Delon Wright, Norman Powell, and Jakob Poeltl are ready to succeed all three incumbents, but that still leaves Toronto way short of toppling Cleveland, let alone challenging Golden State.
In keeping the status quo, Ujiri also kept the same problems. The Raptors are good, but not nearly good enough.